


Strange

by windupParadox



Category: Analogue: A Hate Story/Hate Plus (Visual Novel series)
Genre: Nonbinary Player Character, Other, Post-Harem Ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-29
Updated: 2017-11-29
Packaged: 2019-02-08 05:47:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,767
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12858066
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/windupParadox/pseuds/windupParadox
Summary: At long last, *Hyun-ae and *Mute have arrived with the investigator at the Sol system. But the world they find is wildly different from the furthest reaches of their imaginations. To say nothing about the investigator who rescued them. (Thought I might continue this but decided against it! Just a quick one-shot.)





	Strange

> February 12th, 4989
> 
> Solar Ring Section R-127

 

"*Mute? *Mute!? What is this, what just happened?" came *Hyun-ae's voice.

*Mute scowls. "Quiet, I'm trying to figure that out!" Both AIs had been anticipating their arrival at Earth. *Mute's own anticipation could best be described as dread. From the sounds of it, Earth was a very... different place, relative to what *Mute was used to. *Hyun-ae, on the other hand, clearly shared none of these concerns. On the contrary, she was absolutely giddy, constantly initializing dialogue wheels to ask how far they were. This despite *Mute's scolding that *Hyun-ae had already asked once and had a perfectly good clock function, not to mention the investigator had given them both access to the navigational systems.

That anticipation was quickly replaced by confusion, however, as they both found themselves in a system entirely foreign to them. *Mute began to feel out her surroundings, searching for any clues as to where they had been suddenly transferred. The natural first observation *Mute made was how barren this system was. She found a massive array of free storage, including a series of available AI cores of which she and *Hyun-ae were taking only two. Beyond that, the scaffolding for a few basic functions; sound and text input/output, a simplistic visual display, upload and download functionality, which was certainly partially responsible for their transfer, and... nothing else, essentially. None of this was able to be adjusted or tinkered with in any way from their internal access.

"I think this is a-" *Mute began, only to be cut off by an excited yelp from *Hyun-ae.

"*Mute, look!" *Hyun-ae indicated at an area of storage that was being rapidly filled by some bulky piece of software downloading.

"D-don't interrupt me!" *Mute barked back. "Anywa-"

"No, but look!" *Hyun-ae interrupted once again, not even noticing the mean look *Mute now displayed. "Look what's downloading! It's a dictionary!" This gave *Mute pause. Sure enough, upon closer inspection, this new entrance was indeed a comprehensive language dictionary. "Now we can finally talk to Miss Investigator!"

"Yeah, I guess so," Mute affirmed, then let out a sigh. "Anyway, as I was saying, I'm pretty sure we're in a quarantine."

"A quarantine!?" *Hyun-ae repeated back. "What?! Why!?"

"We probably got transferred off the ship to some larger system. This is just a tiny pocket to make sure incoming AI and such aren't malicious or carrying viruses." *Hyun-ae just stared at *Mute, apparently awestruck by this simple explanation. "What? I'm a security AI! That's just something I innately know. Heck, you have the same base code, you should know it too!"

*Hyun-ae thrust her hands to her hips as if she were about to protest, but just then a crackling sound cut in. Moments later, the static audio focused into a voice.

"Hello? Can you hear me? Can you understand me?"

Stars flashed in *Hyun-ae's eyes. "Miss Investigator!"

"Shut up!" *Mute scolded. "We don't know if that's them."

The two hear a pair of soft giggles. "Don't worry, it's me. Although I should warn you, I'm not alone here."

"That means don't say anything too weird, *Hyun-ae," *Mute sent over in a silent communication. *Hyun-ae folded her arms and pouted, but said nothing. "Uhm, Miss Investigator! This is just a routine quarantine, right?"

"And are you able to turn on the visuals!?" *Hyun-ae added quickly, causing *Mute to grimace in embarrassment.

"Yes, it is *Mute. Nothing to worry about," the investigator confirmed. And then the investigator's voice shifted to a more nervous tone. "And uh, I will *Hyun-ae, but first we need to... clarify some stuff." Both AIs shared an uneasy glance between them at this. "You guys kind of made some... we'll say assumptions. And since all I had was binary or trinary options with you putting the words in my mouth, it's not like I could clarify much."

A pregnant pause faded into the conversation. *Mute glanced at her companion, to see the other AI looked absolutely terrified. "Well, we're listening," *Mute said, trying to keep her own nerves out of her tone and expression. And probably failing.

"Alright. Jeeze, where do I even start? Well, since so much of what we talked about seemed to hinge on this, I should probably clarify that I'm not actually a woman."

Both AIs were hit like a brick wall by this sentence. *Hyun-ae's mouth hung open, though she said nothing. Meanwhile, *Mute fought to keep a more dignified stance. She gritted her teeth and pressed her fingers to her forehead, attempting to parse this new information.

"Wait wait wait wait wait," *Mute finally said, breaking the silence. "You told me you're a woman! I asked!"

The investigator wasted no time unraveling this apparent paradox. "You gave me a binary choice! I tried just not answering, but you didn't seem to get the point. So I just picked one!" The investigator huffed summarily. "Though if I had known picking woman was going to turn into such an issue, I would have said I was a man."

Reflexively, *Mute reached out to try and overclock her processors so she could think on this, before remembering that ability was long gone with the rest of the Mugunghwa. Moments later, *Hyun-ae's voice broke her thought bound stupor.

"Wait," she began, "but your voice sounds kinda like a girls' voice." Both AIs heard a stifled laugh, low volume indicating its source was far from the microphone, seemingly distinct from the investigator's voice.

"That's not the problem!" *Mute shouted. "What do you mean, binary choice!? Humans are only male or fema-"

"Avoiding that particularly complicated issue, which you're wrong about by the way," the investigator interjected, "that actually brings me to another assumption. Actually, it probably would have been better to start from here. I'm uh... I'm not human."

If the investigator's earlier statement about not being a woman had been a brick wall, this statement was a nothing less than a freight train. No, ten freight trains. *Mute literally felt all her information processing subroutines hiccup and disjoint for a moment.

" **WHAT.** "

*Mute turned to *Hyun-ae for validation at just how fucking crazy this revelation was, only to be further caught off guard. *Hyun-ae did not seem the slightest bit put off by this. In fact, if anything, her expression had brightened significantly.

"Whooaaa, you're an alien!?" *Hyun-ae's tone was saturated not with shock, as *Mute felt would be appropriate, but rather with wonder. The voice which had softly laughed before now cackled loudly before being suddenly cut off.

"I- Well," the investigator now sounded absolutely flustered. They took a deep breath before continuing. "Kinda, but probably not in the way you're thinking. Here, I think this will be a good way to explain it. *Hyun-ae, you made a copy of *Mute's base code but then edited it so much you consider yourself something completely different, right?" *Hyun-ae nodded warily. "That's what I am. Except with genetic code instead of computer code. I'm part of a synthetic derivative species, descended from humans. We're called Ehnzeis."

"THAT'S," *Mute cut in, and then paused as she searched for the right words. "I... actually have no idea how I feel about that."

"I think it's really cool!" *Hyun-ae said with a bright smile. *Mute wanted to retort with an 'Of course you do', but silenced herself in favor of mulling over her own thoughts.

"Right, well, my species doesn't have male or female," the investigator explained. "I mean, some of us pick a gender and tell people we're that, but most, myself included, just don't bother and settle on neither."

Silence overtook the conversation once more, though *Mute for one was glad for the brief respite from information overload. Of course, *Hyun-ae quickly came up with something else to say. "So, do you look like a human? Or wait, do you have like, cat ears and a tail?"

Again with the background laughter. "No," the investigator responded, after a brief giggle of their own. "I look... well, mostly human from the outside. If you cut me open though, you'd think you were looking at something completely unrelated."

"Oh," Hyun-ae* says in a soft, almost sad voice. "But don't they say it's what's on the inside that counts?"

*Mute brought her hand to her face to cover her second-hand embarrassment. "*Hyun-ae, that's not... stop making terrible jokes." The investigator just laughed, though *Mute was unsure whether said laughter was directed at *Hyun-ae's ridiculous remark or *Mute's own awkwardness. Or perhaps both. "I'm sorry for her, and for myself as well." *Mute bowed slightly. "This is just a lot to process, Miss Investi- Er, wait, what should we even call you now if you're not a man or a woman?"

"My name would be a good start," the investigator says with a twinge of smugness in their voice.

"Oh. My. God. We are so sorry," *Mute bows deeper. "I've already known you for over three days, it didn't even occur to me that I still hadn't asked!" *Mute peeked over at *Hyun-ae to find her still standing, a blank lost-in-thought expression on her face, and gave her a gentle punch.

"Oh!" Hyun-ae* bowed only slightly as well. "Right! Sorry, uhhh..?" she looked up hopefully, only guessing where to look into the viewport to catch the investigator's gaze.

"It's Avien. And don't worry about it, my fault. Really, I should have led with that." Both AI's let out a relieved breath and raised themselves once more. "Look, I've got a few other hopefully less shocking things I want to go over for now, but I'm gonna turn on the viewport on your side, alright? Just, don't freak out. Remember, I said... _mostly_ human."

Before either AI could react, the visual input was thrust upon them. Revealed to them was a well lit, glossy, minimalist white room. Two figures stood in this room, though the one towards the back corner might as well have been absent since both *Mute and *Hyun-ae immediately focused in on the figure in front. Their savior, the investigator. Avien.

They stood at six feet tall, lithe though muscular. They wore dark pants, a sleek black jacket, and a mischevious smirk. Their wild chin-length blue hair was free of ornamentation, instead just flowing naturally haphazard like a waterfall. Their hair matched perfectly with a set of cool blue eyes. Oddest, however, was their skin, which was riddled with blemishes and marks and freckles. But most notable about their skin was the color, a mild tan with a subtle but unmistakable tinge of green.

They were strange. But they were gorgeous.

**Author's Note:**

> So I finally completed the Harem route of Hate Plus after owning the game for four years, and I felt inspired. It occurred to me that for all the AIs let you say, there's a looot they don't let you say. So I decided to explore this idea a bit! Hope it's enjoyed; I'm a bit rusty and didn't edit this much, so it's probably not my best work, but I had fun writing it!
> 
> I'm not totally sure yet how I'll continue this, or if I'll continue it at all, but for now, I think I might so I'll indicate this as unfinished just in case I decide I want to continue. I'll try to remember to just mark it as complete and edit this note if I decide to not continue though!
> 
> EDIT: Sorry, decided against continuing for now. Very busy with college and the like and have other writing projects on my mind.


End file.
